St. George's Church is a

Russian Orthodox The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC; ;), also officially known as the Moscow Patriarchate (), is an autocephaly, autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodox Christian church. It has 194 dioceses inside Russia. The Primate (bishop), p ...

church in the village of Sandata,

Salsky District Salsky District () is an administrativeLaw #340-ZS and municipalLaw #233-ZS district (raion), one of the forty-three in Rostov Oblast, Russia. It is located in the south of the oblast. The area of the district is . Its administrative center is the ...

Rostov Oblast Rostov Oblast ( rus, Росто́вская о́бласть, r=Rostovskaya oblastʹ, p=rɐˈstofskəjə ˈobləsʲtʲ) is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject of Russia (an oblast), located in the Southern Federal District. The oblast ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. It belongs to Volgodonsk Diocese of the

Moscow Patriarchate The Patriarch of Moscow and all Rus (), also known as the Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia, is the title of the Primate (bishop), primate of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC). It is often preceded by the honorific "His Holiness". As the Ordinar ...

and was built in the early 20th century.

History

Sandata village was founded in 1805, and the first church there was established almost half a century later, the Church of the Protection of the Holy Virgin, constructed in 1851. It also had a

Sunday school ] A Sunday school, sometimes known as a Sabbath school, is an educational institution, usually Christianity, Christian in character and intended for children or neophytes. Sunday school classes usually precede a Sunday church service and are u ...

. The Church of St. George, according to longtime residents, was built in 1912 (although there is no accurate data about it). In 1960, during the USSR anti-religious campaign (1958–1964), anti-religious campaign of

Nikita Khrushchev Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (– 11 September 1971) was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and the Premier of the Soviet Union, Chai ...

, the church was closed after the death of the church's priest; St. George's was the only remaining church in the village. Local residents tried to defend the structure and would not let

party A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a Hospitality, host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, recreation, or as part of a festival or other commemoration or celebration of a special occasion. A party will oft ...

representatives in. The authorities falsely promised locals that the church and its equipment would be preserved; the

bell tower A bell tower is a tower that contains one or more bells, or that is designed to hold bells even if it has none. Such a tower commonly serves as part of a Christian church, and will contain church bells, but there are also many secular bell to ...

was demolished, but the main church building survived. In the 1970s, the church housed a grain warehouse, which subsequently burnt down (probably due to spontaneous combustion). In 1989, the church began to be repaired, and the main works were finished two years later.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint George's Church, Sandata Churches in Rostov Oblast Christian organizations established in 1912 Churches completed in 1912 1851 establishments in the Russian Empire Russian Orthodox church buildings in Russia Cultural heritage monuments of regional significance in Rostov Oblast Salsky District